Vituperative Meaning and Usage

vituperative

adjective

berating; speaking abusively to or about, “vituperative remarks.”
abusive; scolding;

vituperate
verb
berate; scold; rail against abusively;

Derivatives:
Vituperatively - adverb.
Vituperativeness - noun.
Vituperate - verb


Let’s look at some examples:

1. Walter was vituperative in his description of his working conditions and his boss.

2. When Harold spoke to Maude, he was very angry and did so in a vituperative manner.

3. Davis is an opprobrious and vituperative speaker, equally caustic toward friend or foe—a true curmudgeon.

4. Why should he have directed this vituperative speech at the very person whom he loves?

5. Deeply committed to the pursuit of mathematics and the physical sciences, he stood up for the universities when they were attacked by vituperative radicals such as Cromwell's army chaplain, John Webster.

6. George's vituperative language expressed his deep-seated ill will.

7. He vituperated against all presidents with equal gusto.

8. They were unprepared for the hate and vituperation that descended on them.


Synonyms : abusive, acid, aspersive, belittling, biting, calumniating, calumnious, castigatory, censorious, condemnatory, contemptuous, contumelious, damning, defamatory, denigrating, denunciatory, deprecatory, depreciative, depreciatory, derisive, derogatory, detractory, disparaging, harsh, insolent, insulting, invective, libellous, malign, maligning, obloquious, offensive, opprobrious, reproachful, reviling, rude, sarcastic, sardonic, scathing, scolding, scornful, scurrilous, sharp-tongued, slanderous, traducing, trenchant, upbraiding, vilifying withering,


Antonyms : praiseworthy; commendable; laudable; admirable, estimable; creditable; meritorious; excellent; fine.

Zealot Meaning and Usage

Noun

1. one who embraces a cause and supports it with vigor; a fanatically committed person;

one who is zealous; person who shows excessive zeal ; filled with or marked by great interest or enthusiasm; eager, earnest, fervent.

2. a member of an ancient Jewish sect in Judea in the first century who fought to the death against the Romans and who killed or persecuted Jews who collaborated with the Romans

zeal - eager enthusiasm (to a cause or ideal)



Derivatives :

Zealotic - adjective
Zealotism – noun
Zealotry - noun
Zealous - adjective
Zealously - adverb


Let’s look at some examples:

1. The man was known as a religious zealot, as he never stopped trying to convert others to his beliefs.

2. We have to deal with ruthless zealots who are willing to die for their cause.

3. To the delight of his students, he brought great zeal to the teaching profession.

4. Their attacks on innocent civilians show how far their zealotry can take them.

5. Shalom was such a zealous student that he begged his teacher to assign him extra projects.

6. Far too much damage has been done by zealots fighting in a worldly way while claiming to be doing God's work.

7. In some cases, like John Brown, religious zealots paved the way for the end to slavery.

8. Fighting helmet zealots with reason is not only challenging, arguably it's no longer an option.



Synonyms:

Zeal : ardour, fervor

zealot : fanatic, extremist, radical, bigot, maniac, militant, partisan, fan, lobbyist, devotee, dogmatist, opinionist, missionary, fighter, cultist, follower, disciple, propagandist, plugger, crank, faddist, fiend, drumbeater, advocate, advocator, exponent, proponent, doctrinaire, enthusiast, sectary, votary, revolutionary, revolutionist, ultra

zealous: fervent, fervid

zealotry : fanaticism, extremism, radicalism, bigotry, militantism, terrorism, single-mindedness, monomania, fervour, frenzy, hysteria, obsession, obsessiveness.



Antonyms (of Zeal): apathy


Some additional examples:

1. Stockman was obviously a key figure; a supply-side zealot with an impressive grasp of the complexities of the budgetary process, he dazzled both colleagues and adversaries.

2. To judge from what little evidence survives, there seems to have been a strong dynastic element involved in Zealot leadership.


Know more:

zealot implies extreme or excessive devotion to a cause and vehement activity in its support zealots of reform;

fanatic suggests the unreasonable overzealousness of one who goes to any length to maintain or carry out his or her beliefs a temperance fanatic;

an enthusiast is one who is animated by an intense and eager interest in an activity, cause, etc. a sports enthusiast;

bigot implies blind and intolerant devotion to a creed, opinions, etc. a religious bigot

Officious Meaning and Usage

Officious Meaning and Usage

adjective.

1. objectionably aggressive in offering one's unwanted services, help, or advice; meddlesome: an officious person, an officious host; officious attention.
2. ready to serve; obliging.
3. Pertaining to, or being in accordance with, duty.


Some Forms:
officiously - adverb.
officiousness - noun.


Let’s look at some examples:

1. They were tolerably well bred, very officious, humane, and hospitable.

Adjective: Obliging, ready to serve


2. The officious officer could never resist sticking his nose into other people’s business.

3. The officious salesperson refused to leave us alone, so we finally left without buying anything.

4. It didn't take long for the officious dragon to declare that my diet was all wrong, that I needed to lose a stone in weight.

5. I am sick and tired of all the officious telephone calls from political campaigners trying to convince me to vote for their candidate.

6. Jane wanted to help her neighbours, but she was hesitant to offer assistance for fear of being perceived as officious.

7. One of those officious, noisy little men who are always ready to give you unasked information.

8. He was bustling about self-importantly, making an officious nuisance of himself.

9. He's an officious little man and widely disliked throughout the company.

Adjective: interfering, meddlesome, meddling, intrusive



Synonyms: interfering, meddlesome, meddling, busy, intrusive, obtrusive. dictatorial, intruding, forward, bold, aggressive, insistent, persistent, demanding, importunate, overbearing,

Antonyms: modest, self-effacing, shy, timid, disinterested


Some more examples:

1. Henrietta really didn't want to move to another office but she was rather officiously moved while on vacation.
2. Nothing so fatal as to strive too officiously for an abstract quality like beauty
3. Yet not to earth are those bright luminaries Officious.
4. No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.



Origin: 1565, "zealous, eager to serve," from L. officiosus "dutiful," from officium "duty, service". Sense of "meddlesome, doing more than is asked or required" had emerged by 1600 (in officiously). An officious lie (1577) is one told to do good to another person (from L. mendocium officiosum or Fr. mensonge officieux).


Don't mistake "officious" for a rare synonym of "official." Both words stem from the Latin noun "officium" (meaning "service" or "office"), but they have very different meanings. When the suffix "-osus" ("full of") was added to "officium," Latin "officiosus" came into being, meaning "eager to serve, help, or perform a duty." When this adjective was borrowed into English in the 16th century as "officious," it carried the same meaning. Early in the 17th century, however, "officious" began taking on a negative sense to describe a person who offers unwanted help. This pejorative sense has driven out the original "eager to help" sense to become the predominant meaning of the word in Modern English. "Officious" can also mean "of an informal or unauthorized nature," but that sense isn't especially common.

Sedulous Meaning and Usage

Sedulous:
adjective

- Involving or accomplished with careful perseverance
- Diligent in application or pursuit
- Persevering and constant in effort or application; assiduous


Some forms:
sedulously - Adverb
sedulousness - Noun
sedulity - Noun


Let’s look at some examples:
1. The sedulous craftsmanship was evident in the intricately carved cabinet, and in all of its finely-fitted drawers.
Adjective : meticulous, diligent

2. She was known to her teachers as a quiet and sedulous girl.
3. Daphne was a sedulous student whose hard work and determination earned her a number of college scholarships.
4. Sedulous study brought the happy benefit of acceptance to graduate school.
5. If you will do all your homework sedulously this week, I will let you help me rake up the leaves this weekend.
6. Mack was sedulous in his studies of Elizabethan poetry.
Adjective : diligent, studious, attentive


7. A sedulous young man, he was distraught at having missed the deadline.
8. The sedulous landscapper refused to leave until his work was done, even though it was raining heavily.
9. If Clarence were as sedulous in weeding his garden all summer as he is in planting it in the spring, we would have more fresh vegetables—and he would be carrying less weight around.
Adjective : diligent, industrious, thorough


10. Jeannie was sedulous in making sure that she got the best interest rate available.
Adjective: careful, scrupulous.
[Observe the usage in the above sentence. Here, along with the hard-work, the use of intellect is also suggested. Maybe a slight tinge of cunning too...?]


Synonyms: assiduous, diligent, industrious, studious, careful, meticulous, thorough, attentive, laborious, conscientious, punctilious, scrupulous, rigorous, religious, strict, pedantic

Antonyms: nonchalant


Etymology: "sedulous" ultimately comes from the Latin "se dolus," which literally means "without guile." Those two words were eventually melded into one, "sedulo," meaning "sincerely" or "diligently," and from that root developed the Latin "sedulus" and the English "sedulous." Don't let the "sed-" beginning mislead you; "sedulous" is not related to words such as "sedentary" or "sedate" (which derive from the Latin verb "sedœre," meaning "to sit").

Rhetoric Meaning and Usage

Rhetoric

Noun

1. a. The art or study of using language effectively and persuasively; the power of persuasion or attraction; that which allures or charms.
b. A treatise or book discussing this art.
c. The art of composition; especially, elegant composition in prose.

2. a. A style of speaking or writing, especially the language of a particular subject: fiery political rhetoric.
b. Language that is elaborate, pretentious, insincere, or intellectually vacuous; artificial or exaggerated language, fine language or declamation without conviction or earnest feeling.

3. Verbal communication; discourse; the art of speaking with propriety, elegance, and force

4. wordiness; long speech




Rhetorical

Adjective

Rhetorical is the adjective form of rhetoric. Is also has a special usage. A rhetorical question is one for which answer is not expected.
Ex: "Do you think I'm stupid?" he asked rhetorically.



Forms:
rhetorical : Adjective
rhetorically : Adverb



Synonyms: oratory, eloquence, diction, bombast, loftiness, turgidity, boastfulness, bragging, heroics, hyperbole, pompousness, sonorousness, windiness, wordiness, verbosity, prolixity, elocution, declamation, speechifying, grandiloquence, spieling, rant, fustian, magniloquence, aureate, orotund, overblown, swollen.

Antonyms: conciseness, unrhetorical


Let's look at some examples:

1. In posing a rhetorical question, he hoped to get people thinking.
Adjective : Question for which answer is not expected.

2. His offers of compromise were mere rhetoric.
Adjective : declamation without conviction or earnest feeling

3. Instead, he simply left it to Vise President to spout the anti-American rhetoric.
Adjective : grandiloquence,magniloquence, sonorousness

4. The company’s rhetoric on breadth is not always backed up in fact, yet we regard it as a major 'brand' asset.
Adjective : boastfulness, grandiloquence,magniloquence, sonorousness,

5. What are the effects of the rhetorics of empowerment and participation pushed by government and NGOs?
6. The once politically centrist, science-based vision of environmentalism has been largely replaced with extremist rhetoric.
7. There's been no shortage of soaring rhetoric at this summit
Adjective : grandiloquence,magniloquence, sonorousness


8. He was considered to excel in this form of rhetoric.
Adjective: eloquence, Style of oration.

9. He had a tendency to engage in rhetorical hyperbole.
Adjective: overblown,


10. I got swayed by her rhetoric into donating all my savings to the charity.
Adjective: elocution, declamation

Insidious Meaning and Usage

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Insidious Meaning:

adj.
1. Working or spreading harmfully in a subtle or stealthy manner: “insidious rumors”

2. Beguiling but harmful; alluring: “insidious pleasures”

3. Lying in wait; watching an opportunity to entrap; deceitful; sly; treacherous; said of persons; as, the insidious foe. “The insidious witch” “insidious arts”, “The insidious whisper of the bad angel”

4. (Science: medicine) insidious disease is a disease existing, without marked symptoms, but ready to become active upon some slight occasion; a disease not appearing to be as bad as it really is. Being a disease that progresses with few or no symptoms to indicate its gravity; describing a development that is gradual, subtle, or imperceptible. Certain chronic diseases, such as glaucoma, can develop insidiously with symptoms that are not detected by the patient until the disorder is established.

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Forms:
insidiously - adverb
insidiousness - noun

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Use Insidious in a sentence:

1. The investigators uncovered an insidious scheme to rob people of their life savings.
Adjective: cunning, deceitful

2. The stalker was insidious in his attempts to reach his victim and outwit the police.
3. The insidious burglar was able to sneak into the house without being heard or seen.
Adjective: designing, cunning, sneaky


4. The onset of the cold was so insidious that Tom hardly knew what had hit him.
Adjective: sneaky, stealthy, subtle


5. Jennifer spread insidious rumors of her opponent before the school election
Adjective: treacherous


6. He was unaware that an insidious cancer was consuming him.
Adjective: pernicious


7. The battle was lost due to the actions of insidious defectors.
Adjective: deceptive

8. The Trent was very full. It swept silent and insidious under the bridge, traveling in a soft body.
Adjective: quietly, subtly

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Insidious Synonyms:
subtle, cunning, designing, smooth, tricky, crooked, slick, sly, treacherous, deceptive, wily, crafty, artful, disingenuous, Machiavellian, deceitful, surreptitious, duplicitous, guileful, perniciously, circumventive, alluring, sneaky, ensnaring, stealthy.

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Insidious Antonyms:
fair, honest, open, sincere, straightforward

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Some more examples:

1. Inflation is insidious, sneaky, and in the long term, a possible killer to your financial planning.

2. One of the most insidious uses of such messages is in subliminal advertising, where one’s subconscious is deliberately bombarded in an effort to make that person buy a certain product.

3. But there's another type of poison perhaps a little more insidious — thought poison — commonly called "gossip."

4. The condition may be insidious in onset, caused by infection, infarction or insufficient insulin.

5. Some patients, however, present with a more insidious onset.

6. I think it is a particularly insidious form of plagiarism.

7. Piecemeal change to pub exteriors and interiors, while more insidious than wholesale rebuilding, can be equally destructive.

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Callow Meaning and Usage

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Meaning:

adjective

1. immature or inexperienced

Usage : a callow [=immature] youth, training callow [=inexperienced] recruits for the army; often disapproving used to describe a young person who does not have much experience and does not know how to behave the way adults behave


2. (of a young bird) featherless; unfledged. Destitute of feathers; naked;


noun

1. a recently hatched worker ant.

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Forms:
callowness : noun

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Synonyms: inexperienced, naive, unsophisticated, bald, bare, crude, green, immature, inexperienced, infantile, juvenile, marshy, naive, raw, shallow, untried, puerile, jejune, unseasoned, untrained, adolescent, guileless, artless, unworldly.

Antonyms: experienced, initiated, mature, sophisticated

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Use Callow in a sentence:

1. Although Evelyn was hardly callow, she was not yet experienced in the ways of the world.
Adjective: naïve

2. The young girl shrugged off the suggestion in a callow manner.
Adjective: rude, immature

3. The new person you just hired is very callow.
Adjective: naïve, immature

4. The private thought he had learned a lot in his 22 years, but next to the seasoned veterans he was just a callow youth.
Adjective: inexperienced

5. Back when I was a callow college student," said Emma, "I paid little attention to the advice given to me by my professors.
Adjective: naïve, immature, rude

6. .....grow up very quickly, he told the callow youth, 'I used to do that when I was your age.
Adjective: immature, rude

7. She said "I usually dont date men younger than 25 because I find that they are callow."
Adjective: naïve

8. A callow kid comes to New York after college and takes a series of lame-ass jobs: from advertising assistant for a detergent company to temp receptionist to his disastrous attempt at waiting tables.
Adjective: naïve, immature.

9. Not all of Eugenes anarchists are callow youths, though. Some are genuine, steadfastly committed, and deep-thinking.
Adjective: immature

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Origin:
"Callow" comes from "calu," a word that meant "bald" in Middle English and Old English. By the 17th century, "callow" had come to mean "without feathers" and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term was also used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense. "Callow" continues to mean "inexperienced" or "unsophisticated" today.

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Fledge Meaning and Usage

Fledge:

Use Fledge in a sentence:

1. The birds were not as yet fledged enough to shift for themselves.

2. She was now a fully-fledged member of the teaching profession.

3. The fledgling mountain climber needed assistance from the more experienced mountaineers.

4. Myra and her sisters are excited about their fledgling catering service.

5. We watched a robin giving flying lessons to her three fledglings.

6. These techniques will help both fledgling and veteran auditors improve their writing skills.

7. Following the example set by China’s wooden furniture sector, a growing number of fledgling businesses are diversifying.


Got some clue as to what fledge could mean?

Use it !!!

(a) To fledge a bird would mean to bring it up until it is able to fly.

(b) To fledge would mean to add feathers or plumage; to fledge an arrow is to add feathers to one end of it.


Some forms of the word:

1. fledgy

- adjective.

(a) feathered or feathery.


2. unfledged

- adjective

(a) (of a young bird) not having developed adult feathers

(b) immature and inexperienced, or untried.

3. Fledged

-adjective

(a) mature – (of birds) having developed feathers or plumage; often used in combination


4. Fledgling

-noun

(a) A young bird that has recently acquired its flight feathers – “a fledgling robin”

(b) A young or inexperienced person

-adjective

(c) New and untried or inexperienced – a fledgling enterprise, a fledgling diver, fledgling democracies.


A Glance Back:

Now let’s go back and see what fledge means in the above sentences:

1. The birds were not as yet fledged enough to shift for themselves.

Adjective: Mature, ready, feathered.

2. She was now a fully-fledged member of the teaching profession.

Adjective: Mature, trained,

3. The fledgling mountain climber needed assistance from the more experienced mountaineers.

4. These techniques will help both fledgling and veteran auditors improve their writing skills

Adjective: Inexperienced, naive, neophyte.

5. Myra and her sisters are excited about their fledgling catering service.

6. Following the example set by China’s wooden furniture sector, a growing number of fledgling businesses are diversifying.

Adjective: Burgeoning, growing, emerging, arising.

7. We watched a robin giving flying lessons to her three fledglings.

Noun: younger birds which have just developed the feathers.



Synonyms: emergent, emerging, arising, dawning, beginning, developing, in the making, budding, raising, burgeoning, growing, embryonic, infant, nascent, incipient, promising, potential, entrant, freshman, neophyte, newbie, novice, tyro, beginner, freshman, greenhorn, initiate, enlistee, recruit, apprentice, tenderfoot, untried, colt, learner, abecedarian, rookie.

Antonyms: declining, mature, expert, professional.


Some more examples:

1. For a long time, the trend in science has been towards highly reductionist theories. Presumably inspired by the success of such reductionist fields as physics, other fledgling sciences have attempted to do the same, often with little success.

2. A fledgling manufacturing company has recently developed a new titanium alloy anti-ballistic vest with an estimated life-span of nearly twice that of the standard Kevlar vest.